Frank Butler of prominent Oak Brook family dies

An heir to the Butler paper, aviation and real estate fortune and member of the family that founded west suburban Oak Brook, Frank Osgood Butler II was a longtime conservationist and philanthropist.

Among Mr. Butler's own business dealings was Butler Walker Inc., a pairing with former Illinois Gov. Dan Walker and Walker's wife that consisted of 35 fast oil change centers that the group established in 1981. The group sold the centers to Jiffy Lube International in the mid-1980s.

Mr. Butler also was known for his philanthropic work and his love of entertaining at his Spanish revival-style mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., which was designed by architect Addison Mizner and built in 1925.

"He was just so incredibly kind, and I think his kindness attracted a wonderfully diverse following from all over the world," said longtime friend Kathlyn Maguire, of Chicago. "The thing about Frank was that he really loved to love and care for others. He was an intensely loyal friend."

Mr. Butler, 86, died Friday, Aug. 22, at Lourdes-Noreen McKeen Residence in West Palm Beach, Fla., said his sister, Jorie Butler Kent. He had long battled cancer, she said.

Born in Chicago, Mr. Butler was the middle of three children of multimillionaire Oak Brook founder Paul Butler, who in the 1940s had founded Butler Aviation Corp., once the nation's largest general aviation company. Mr. Butler's ancestors in 1844 had established the Butler Paper Co. in Chicago.

Mr. Butler, who was named after his paternal grandfather, was raised on his family's farm, which was located in what now is Oak Brook, and commuted into Chicago to attend the Latin School, his sister said. The lush property at one point was 5,800 acres, Mr. Butler told the Tribune in 2003.

The thing about Frank was that he really loved to love and care for others. He was an intensely loyal friend.— Kathlyn Maguire, friend

"It (Oak Brook) was rather spectacular," he said. "Oak Brook was all private. It was 5,800 acres, and everything was us. We could go riding, and the streets were still gravel. It was a beautiful world."

After attending Culver Military Academy and the Virginia Military Institute, Mr. Butler moved to Palm Beach, where he and his sister ran Butler Aviation at Palm Beach International Airport.

"We had a wonderful time together," Kent said. "Frank was (Butler Aviation's) general manager and I was the controller."

In the late 1950s Mr. Butler moved to Portugal, where he developed real estate. In the 1970s and 1980s he lived in Aspen, Colo., where he also developed real estate. He returned to Palm Beach during the 1980s.

After Mr. Butler's father died in 1981 at age 89, his offspring feuded over the family fortune. Mr. Butler was awarded one-third of his father's estate and also received an interest in Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook. Mr. Butler's mother, Marjorie von Stresenreuter Childress, died in 2003.

"He was so incredibly well-read. He had a prodigious memory and a wonderful sense of humor," Kent said.

Although Mr. Butler was tall and athletic, he eschewed polo — one of his family's sports — because of a severe allergy to horses, favoring skiing instead.

In 1978 he told the Tribune that his allergy to horses dated to his teen years.

"If it happens now, a father could just send his son to Arizona to clear it up, but that wasn't known in those days," he said.

Asked if he was a good polo player, Mr. Butler told the Tribune, "Well, I should have been. I grew up on a farm. We're all farmers, you know."

Mr. Butler told the Tribune's Eleanor Page in 1970 that his horse allergy didn't extend to bulls, and he started bullfighting while living in Portugal.

In 2006 he was sued in Florida by a 22-year-old man who claimed that he had been sexually molested as a child by Mr. Butler. Mr. Butler's attorney denied the charges at the time and again this week. The plaintiff dropped the lawsuit in 2008.

A marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his sister, Mr. Butler is survived by a brother, theatrical producer Michael; and a half sister, Gwendolyn Dunaway McGonagle.